Are IB skills really that valuable?
Incoming top BB analyst.
Curious on people’s thoughts on the strength of the IB skill set. Is learning how to build models and PowerPoint really that valuable? As a senior member, you don’t do either, which to me, means that other skills like learning how to sell or execute are far more important, especially considering how AI will soon halve the need for analysts.
The main reason I decided to pursue the IB route was to ensure that in the worst case, I would at least be able to find a decent job with the brand name on my resume. But I don’t know if it makes sense anymore… There are a lot of other industries that will likely grow in the wake of innovation.
TLDR: uncertain about future of finance, are the glory days over? And is this trend secular and non cyclical
Its a great training ground. The work ethics, efficiencies, as well as the resourcefulness you get even after a year of a top IB analyst program goes a long way.
It's really not. Don't drink the koolaid on here. Unless you are set on PE/Corp Dev, don't do it. I regret going into the field. I've written about this already here, but the "skillset" is not valuable except to people on this board and PE headhunters. You're not going to have a bunch of doors to other industries open to you that you couldn't get at other corporate jobs. Most people in other industries (including strategic finance at "cool" tech companies that's talked about ad nauseum on here) don't even know what IB really is.
I will say though if you want to stay in IB long-term and actually make it a career, it is worth it and you can become wealthy at a relatively young age versus other professions. But looking at the industry for "exits" is the most idiotic thing in the present day. If you want to do something else, just go do it. No one is giving you brownie points for being sleep deprived for two years and beating around the bush of your true desires.
:(, idek where to start looking for elsewhere
Just do tech and out earn your banking peers while working less hours
Well said!
I disagree. Majority of Strat Fin jobs also prefer people who've gone the usual path (IB, consulting, PE).
I didn't do IB after undergrad and tried to get into post MBA banking for a 1.5-2 year stint before pivoting back to the corporate world (struck out in banking and a few PE / consulting firms I recruited at). I know people who work in operational roles in corporate roles and some of them regret not doing 1-2 years in one of those paths after undergrad. Having that stamp on your resume can truly accelerate your career in the early innings. It carries a lot of weight even with people unfamiliar with the day to day activities of what a junior banker does.
Why 1-2 IB years post-undergrad of IB really matter after transitioning to corporate? After getting there isn't it about performance there rather than experience years before?
You’re totally wrong and sound like someone who hasn’t been in the job market for a while.
The skills learned in banking at the junior levels of banking are somewhat universal, but overall pretty niche. Skills like hard work, prompt communication, time management, financial literacy, and how-to-use Office products (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) can be used in functions outside of IB. These aren't skills that you couldn't learn in another profession, but IB drills those skills into you in a condensed time frame. At the junior levels it's not work that would prep you for roles outside of finance, and even at the senior levels of IB, the skills that would transfer are based more in people management and sales than anything else.
If your goal is to stay in M&A or capital markets for your career, then don't worry about skill sets transferring. If you're someone who's doing IB because you've been told that IB will open every door for you and people will beg to hire you, then you might want to rethink what exactly you want to do.
Modeling, in particular, is not a very important skill
Do IB if you want to be a career banker or you want to recruit for the exit ops
Outside of the other points, this particular criticism misses the "apprenticeship" element in most finance jobs. While the direct analyst/associate skills don't necessarily translate to the MD skillset, the cumulative time spent with senior leaders & experience while the stakes are low from your career can't be overlooked.
Think this concept is often overlooked. It becomes more apparent to me the impact this has when I think about how I thought about deals / situations / opportunities before I’d spent two years working closely with senior bankers versus after. It truly takes paying attention to everything seniors do, even the simple and mundane, to really start to absorb it. To this day I find it so impressive how some MDs on my team can turn shit situations into opportunities time and time again. And each time is another learning opportunity on strategy and situation management. Which, while very applicable to a career in banking, is also an applicable skill set to most things in life not just work.
MBB consulting is 100% a more valuable skill set versus banking for anything outside of PE, even then I'd argue it's close
Not sure I agree with those saying it’s not very valuable - especially on this forum it’s basically gatekeeping. Maybe it’s worth differentiating between skills and experience - sure the skills may not be super valuable but current rules of the game suggest the experience is extremely valuable. Doors will open that were previously shut, and very few doors will shut that were previously open. The field remains attractive and lucrative and is still a fantastic staging ground to build a network and repertoire. Make any choice you want but the notion that a stint in IB will not be beneficial for you is not accurate
I don’t think AI is replacing much of high finance front office for quite a while. You do learn valuable skills and get a good brand name. People on here being cynical are missing the point, I think. You will have a lot of potential exits - to HF/PE, to general business roles, to asset management, to startups, to VC, to graduate school etc. There are relative virtues of consulting or tech, no doubt. But banking will give you most of the same general opportunities in your first few years. SWE is actually a much narrower skill set that is more closely tied to a particular industry, as evidenced by the recent turmoil in the tech labor labor market. Sure, finance is cyclical. But the same skills have basically been valued for at least a half century at this point and most people in finance have remained employed through many sharp business cycles. You’ll work hard in IB and figured out where you want to go. But it’s still worth it imo.
Great, so where are all these jobs? It’s easy to pontificate on how things used to be when you’ve been sitting comfortable in your seat for years. The idea that you think I’m getting a leg-up on non-PE interviews versus other corporate candidates is laughable. Also that sentence about people being employed through all business cycles is a ridiculous lie and you know that.
No, I don’t? I’m sorry but I have an entire network of friends and colleagues and classmates in finance and every single one of them has been able to stay employed and earn a decent living throughout the last few years. I personally know people who have exited into corporate jobs, VC, tech etc. I literally just got a different job this month and have had numerous different roles, I’m not sitting comfortable in one seat. I never said it was easy — but neither is tech, consulting, law, medicine. You inherently have more outcome dispersion and beta in finance than some of those other paths. That’s part of the game and why the upside is also really strong. But let’s not let the broader difficulties of the ultra competitive white collar world blind us to the reality that finance remains a lucrative and valuable field.
The hard skills are not the valuable IB skills. Yes, it is good to be able to model well. Yes, being able to make presentations can materially impact your career, especially at larger companies. I literally know someone who went to work at a smaller public company ($5B TEV) at an "early" director level and within ~5 years was the CFO largely off the back of his ability to present ideas (and the usual luck). The hard skills are useful.
But the real benefit is in the soft skills. Almost everything you do in IB is going to be among the most important projects at your clients. That means you will generally be working with more senior people. You are going to be working on projects that have a lot more visibility at the company. You will be working on projects that are a lot more "high leverage" situations than the typical person your age.
IB is still the safest way to get this type of experience. IB is far from the only job that gets you these benefits, but it is the safest route. It is the route with the largest margin of error
Says the guy in corpdev
Almost like I know something about the what an "IB skillset" brings to careers outside of IB...
There are plenty of things you can say about what I just said but saying "you work on exactly the type of team that people think of leaving IB for" is not the argument you think it is when we are talking about how IB sets one up for non-IB roles.
Within an IB team, your internal touchpoints are just your MD/D/VPs.
Won't even argue they are senior at all. An MD maybe manages 30-40 people max but a corporate VP that oversees a finance function or a product division easily manages 5-6 teams and hundreds of people.
Working in IBD gives very poor soft skill training, you are 90% of the time sitting in a bullpen talking to 4-5 people and even as an associate only manages 3-4 analysts whereas working in FMCG as a brand manager or tech as a PM you are managing P&L, talking with product development, marketing, finance, ops, etc. with A LOT more soft skills and way broader skillset.
Most MDs don't even translate as a good CFO given their financial knowledge and experience are way too niche and they have never managed a big organization.
First, do you know the difference between the concepts of (i) absolute and (ii) relative?
I’ve seen how being fast and capable in excel and ppt is useful. It’s not the most exciting skill but it is very useful.
These are the tools used in finance and just being able to use them faster than most really helps a lot. Not to mention all the other things you learn in the job and this is really one of the few roles where you get to see several multi-billion $ deals up close as a fresh graduate. Even if you do crummy admin work, you will still see what happens and the logic (and often illogic, ha!) behind large deals.
Not to mention you make a ton of money while doing it.
All this assumes you chose your career path right tho, if you get into and hate finance and corporate roles, well then maybe it just wasn’t a good decision in the first place.
The “glory days” were the 1980s-2007.
Quisquam corrupti unde id id reprehenderit. Voluptatem ab facere aut quis quo qui natus a. Earum hic nisi quia tenetur est magni.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Accusamus rerum sapiente velit voluptas repellendus. Similique nihil consequatur velit est. Omnis accusantium ipsum animi laborum perspiciatis omnis voluptatem. Blanditiis laudantium aut autem reprehenderit et et in explicabo.
Voluptatem est facilis at ab odit repudiandae nam. Et earum iure laboriosam impedit saepe ut. Dolorem dolorum laudantium dolor magnam iste reprehenderit nemo est. Voluptate blanditiis reiciendis dicta non vel odit vel.
Aperiam ipsam nulla odio fuga minus. Non voluptatem non sit delectus. Blanditiis nisi libero nihil sed eos et. Molestias qui similique a consectetur. Cupiditate cum unde magnam dignissimos perferendis aliquam mollitia. Aut est placeat qui dolorem sint consequatur.
At quia alias cum voluptatem repellat. Enim possimus qui voluptas sit exercitationem maxime beatae minima.